Just a more normal day. . .

I wish that I was as Blog savvy as my niece, and many of the fellow bloggers. If I were, there would be colorful, meaningful photos to remind me of this day. Yesterday, my mom & dad came over for an early dinner. This wouldn't be that unusual if my mom was okay and still living at home. I had made spaghetti, and homemade ice cream. My mom was never a big spaghetti person. When she made it, she always used macaroni and her sauce had lots of ketchup! I made small salads to go with the spaghetti. Mom was so glad to be in my home. She is so encouraging these days! She loved everything. She seems to have a harder time following verbal cues. She was focused on the spaghetti, and didn't notice the salad until I cued her that it was there. If I say, "Your fork may work better than your spoon", she has a hard time transitioning. I had told Chad they were coming over, and if he was around, to stop by. He pulled in my driveway, and I told her that he was there. She asked if she knew him. I told her he was her son, and if she didn't recognize him to fake it! She laughed! When he came in, she totally knew who he was, and asked how his new house was. (Chad moved into a new house in town right before Christmas.) Her conversation always goes back to Dad, and when they can live together. He makes her laugh! Dad is such a good storyteller! My sister, Pam, loaned me a book by Lauren Kessler, called Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's. One of her experts said that Alzheimer's is a detaching disease. The interesting thing about Mom is that she seems to have detached from most people, expect for family. What makes this interesting is that as a child & adult, Mom always seemed to have more time & energy for others than she did for our family. I'm so thankful for this time to be able to enjoy her, and have her be in the moment, and not so frenetic! I know that it sounds odd, but in many way, I love this Mom more than I did the old Mom. I'm so sorry for her & my dad. They truly miss each other, but to me for the most part, its a gift! Having my parent's in my home for a meal together is more normal than visiting them separately. Its more normal than visiting Mom at Streamside, as thankful as we are for it & her caretakers! Mom always made homemade ice cream. There was rarely not homemade ice cream in our freezer, especially since she & Dad retired. I have been making it almost weekly as I perfect some recipes. I served it with little fruit pies. She was so happy, and so was Dad! Ahhh. . .I love them!!

Aunt Della Jane. . .

Today, we had services for my Aunt Della Jane Taylor. Della Jane passed away a couple of weeks ago in Richland, WA. She moved their about 5 years ago to be closer to her daughter, Julie. Della Jane was striking and had a big personality. To hear her laugh, made you want to start giggling! She also had some personality issues. She was always mad at someone. My mom was 5+ years older than Della Jane. Their relationship was rocky at times; very close at other times. I have great memories of DJ when she was young. She was 20 years older than me. I loved to go to Grandma & Grampa Morris's, because I knew I would see Auntie DJ. She gave me my 4th birthday party in Melba with the Morris cousins. Marian was born 3 days before I turned 4, so Mom took Pam & I to Nampa on the train. Dad & Chad,who was barely 2, met us at the Nampa Depot, and took us out to Melba. After Mom was home from the hospital, Grandma Morris & DJ drove Pam & I home. My folks were living at the Hill Ranch in Hill City. It was night when we got there, Mom was giving Marian a bath in a red plastic tub when we arrived. I was pretty shell shocked by the whole thing. . .being at Grandma's, having a birthday party, and getting a new baby sister. Four month after I turned 4, we returned to Nampa/Melba in January for Aunt DJ's wedding to Keith Taylor. Keith had movie star good looks! His son, David, looks so much like him!

My next memory of DJ was Easter that year. Again, we journeyed from Fairfield/HillCity to Nampa/Melba. Auntie DJ ask me to spend the night with her & Keith. I went! Brave little 4 year old! I remember she asked me who I wanted to carry me upstairs & I wanted her. She was pregnant with Julie at the time. It was an old house & the stairs were steep, but she carried me!

My mom always took great care of herself. She watched her weight to the point of obsession. DJ struggled with her weight too, but most of my life I remember her as being heavy. I am sure looking back that this affected her self esteem. One summer, I went to Europe, when I came back, Uncle Keith gave me a job painting track houses. Julie & I were the trim crew. It helped me to get to know him better & spend time with their kids. Julie was born in 1958; David in l959; & Jeff less than a year later in 1960. Not only was this hard on DJ physically, she had 3 babies to raise! Then when David was 4; Della Jane & Keith adopted Debbie. She was 5 months younger than David. So, they had 4 kids, 22 months apart. Uncle Keith died of prostate cancer in 1977 on Julie & Mike's wedding day. Aunt DJ had 3 teenagers left at home. It was not easy for any of them.

Fast forward to today- DJ died of Alzheimers. My mom has Alzheimers. The Morris clan gathered. It is nice to see my cousins and their kids & grandkids. We took Mom. We weren't planning on it, but Dad & I went to Streamside & got her ready. We told her we were going to church & to a family dinner. She asked me at the dinner if Della Jane had just died. I told her yes, and she replied that she thought so. She told me that Della Jane was not a happy person, and she hoped that she was happy now. Pretty insightful. Mom looked great, and seemed to recognize most of the family. It was a good day, and I think that not only was it good for Mom; I think it was good for the family to see her. She looked beautiful! I love my mama! I took her home to Streamside; she was tired, and I tucked her in for a little nap!

Builder Blog or Travel Blog?

As my house is almost completed. . .just an upstairs bath to change a cabinet in, and a little painting is left, this seems to be turning into my travel blog.

My siblings are some of the hardest working people that I know. My sister, Pam has been a coordinator/acting principal for summer school for the last few years. What this means for her is that she finishes up her teaching year & immediately turns around & begins preparing for summer school. This really limits her vacation time. She ends up getting about 2 weeks off during the summer. This year she called & asked if we could go somewhere. The closer it gets to the time to go, the harder it is to get wonderful timeshare locations. So, I just looked for what was available during the week she had off. We ended up at Whistler, B.C. It was so much fun. We really enjoyed ourselves. We walked everywhere. It is such a great community. The unfortunate part is we ran into traffic on the way up & border problems on the way down. So, what should be a 4 hour drive ended up being a 7 & 6 hour drive. Still, it was so worth it.

One of the things that I have always wanted to do was to do a zipline excursion. I first heard about this when I went to Costa Rica. We decided to do a TreeTrek instead which was an ecological excursion about 200 feet up in the air. You walk between platforms on swinging bridges. It was so interesting & we got to see people who were zipping. I sure hope I get to do it some time!

If you look right in the middle of the picture you can see someone zipping!

There is already much building going on for the 2010 Winter Olympics. They are doing a 600 million dollar road improvement project up to Whistler. Many of the signs are up marking the venues. This is a picture of the bobsledding coarse. It is almost completed.

This is such a great place for families. There is just so much to do. The tiniest little girl was doing this bungy jumping deal. My niece's kids love their trampoline & this would even be a safer extension of that!

They had a climbing wall for kids & those blowup jump houses, as well as an alpine slide. They also had horses that kids could ride.

We got in some reading time & pool time every day. . .with sunscreen, of coarse!

This is like the mascot thing for the Olympics. You see them scattered throughout the area. I forget the native American word for it, but it means "in the image of man."

One of the things we wanted to do was the Peak Adventure. We rode the gondola & the chairlift up the Whistler side of the mountain. The views were incredible! You can see some of the glacial ice in the background. The color of the lakes & streams were amazing. We were told most of the water in the streams were part of the glacier 45 minutes earlier. It gave the water in the streams & lakes amazing color. I know what ice blue is now!

All in all, it was a relaxing trip. I would go to Whistler again in a second!

Yellowstone June 08

Marian and I were able to go to Yellowstone for a couple of nights in June. We haven't had time like that alone together in years. . .very fun! It sure keeps things in perspective when you see God's wonders! I had never been to Yellowstone that time of year. It was teeming with new life, wasn't crowded, and yet there was still snow at the higher elevations. I think Yellowstone encompasses everything in "America the Beautiful." How blessed we are!

Finishing Touches?

Could this project really be close to being finished? The fireplace mantel was installed today. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do to make it look finished. We (Ken & I) decided that we would put a wood skirt up from the floor in the hickory, and then just have a 3" band of tile around the perimeter of the firebox. Someone told me when I built my house the first time that you make a thousand buying decisions when you build. I think when you remodel you must make at least 2000 decisions! I was a bit disappointed with the stain on the fireplace mantel. I thought it need to be a couple of tones darker. We are going to have the painter darken it up a bit! Just fine tuning. . .

I went with the vessel sinks & got the copper faucets on overstock.com. I don't know if you can tell, but the back splash has a lot going on. . .there is ceramic tile, glass tile, copper tile, and stainless steel. Ken did a beautiful job. . .it wasn't easy getting all those little tiles to line up!

This is the accent trim band in the shower. It is stainless steel and copper. The metal is much thinner than the marble, so my thoughtful builder put a lathe? band of wire in under the metal, so that it would be even with the marble and wouldn't collect water. He is thoughtful in his process. I appreciate it!

On Sunday, June 29th, I took my first bath in my new tub. I was starting to think the day would never come!! It was good. I need a shelf for my coffee & books. After all, its Bathtub Ministries!

Another view, it is really beautiful, I think! Carpet went into the bedroom on Friday. The closet package will arrive this week. I ordered it from Costco. I can't wait to move into my room! It still needs fans, and the chandelier hung in the closet. I got a box, and couldn't figure out what it was. When I opened it, it was the chandelier! It wasn't assembled! I don't know how I thought it was going to be shipped, but I didn't think it would be in pieces! Ken says its not a problem. . .I hope he's right!

New views

View of front of house.


View of garage side of house. There will be a little balcony railing under the window. It is yet to be installed. There will be matching metal flower boxes along the front also made of iron.

Something old. . .

I used to like all things old. . .not so much anymore as I learned they are sometimes more difficult to take care of and maintain. There are a few things that are really worth holding onto the old and you can't find new things that compare. One of these areas is in lighting. . .I love antique light fixtures. . .when they are re-wired and work like new!! I was able to buy a couple of these light fixtures on e-bay. These are some of the first things I bought for the house and it is so fun to see them up! They are even more beautiful than I remembered!!


This one is in the master bedroom.



This one is in the master bath area over the copper tub. I had them put a dimmer on it, so that if I want it not so bright!!


The other thing that is not quite the same if its new is stained glass. I bought this stained glass window about 30 years ago. I had Ken put it in when we built the house 13 years ago. Now it is relocated to its new home in my closet. The afternoon sun is amazing coming through the atrium windows & then through the stained glass. So, my advice is choose old things carefully. If you don't, you just end up with a lot of junk!! I know!